Mandarin in Lagos, yes please.

Lagos will have their young people learning Chinese and according to BellaNaija, there is big debate as to whether this is a good thing or not.

What could be bad about it? There is no need for natives to be on the back foot in their own land because they can't negotiate with the new economic powerhouse that is China, on their terms.

I must say that Nigeria should also be doing their best to promote the learning of native languages (reading, writing and conversation) within their own young people and their diaspora descendants. The adoption of Mandarin as a language to learn within Nigerian schools is only a problem if it is yet another one-way imposition upon Nigerian culture and identity to the benefit of an alien culture, language and nation.

So really if we must debate the fact that our schools will teach Mandarin, the question is, will it be to compliment or replace our native (i.e. Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa) and presently adopted (i.e. English) languages?

All in all, I'm in favour of it. If used to strengthen Nigeria rather than re-suppress Nigeria we could be seeing the beginning of an even brighter future.